


11,629 Ways to Fall in Love

by writerbot5000



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comedy, F/F, This one is a bit silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:48:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22916494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerbot5000/pseuds/writerbot5000
Summary: What if Mxyzptlk couldn't change the past, but he had another way to show Kara what could have happened with her and Lena? Or, Mxyzptlk introduces Kara to AO3.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 98
Kudos: 615





	1. Chapter 1

“I can’t change your past, Miss Zor-El,” Mxyzptlk explains. “Well, I _can_ , but the Fifth Dimension’s new leadership has all these _rules_ about not altering the fabric of time. So I guess it’s more accurate to say that I’m not allowed to change your past. But that doesn’t mean I can’t show you what would have happened if you had told Lena your secret sooner.” 

Kara deflates slightly. For a second there she thought maybe Mxyzptlk would be able to just snap his fingers and solve her problems. Still, it might be nice to know what could have been if she hadn’t been such a coward. “Okay, let’s do it.”

“Excellent,” Mxyzptlk exclaims, rubbing his hands together. He snaps his fingers and a laptop appears in his hands in a flash of light. He sets the laptop down on the table in front of him and starts typing. “Okay, let’s see what would happen if you had been the one to tell Miss Luthor your secret,” he stares at the screen. “Huh. 6,312 results. Let’s narrow that down a bit, shall we? You could have told Lena your secret at pretty much any point from when your first meeting up until when she found out from Lex. So pick a time and we’ll take a look at that.” 

“Um,” Kara stammers, a little overwhelmed at the breadth of choice. “Okay, how about when we were on the plane back from Kaznia. I came super close to telling her then; I took my glasses off and everything.” 

“Okay, great!” Mxyzptlk answered, hitting a few more keys. “47 results. That’s a bit more manageable. Let’s see… Oh, this is a good one.” He clicks his mouse and turns the laptop to Kara. 

Kara looks at the screen, surprised to see what looks like a website page, full of text. “It’s just written?” Kara asks, a little disappointed. “I thought we would do the whole TV thing?” When he had first arrived, Mxyzptlk had projected a scene of Kara and Lena’s confrontation in the Fortress onto the TV, so she had assumed that was what he would do again. 

“I may be a Fifth Dimensional being with almost unlimited powers, but even for me, rendering 6,312 different scenarios would be a bit much. Besides, I really want to keep our Teen rating.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“Oh, nothing you need to worry about,” the imp answers before waving his hands impatiently. “Now get reading.” 

Kara shrugs her shoulders and does as Mxyzptlk asks. He is supposed to be doing this as a favor to her after all.

It’s a little surreal to be reading a story about your own life, but Kara soon gets sucked in. This file seems to be written from Lena’s point-of-view so she’s getting a glimpse into her best friend’s mind. As she expected, Lena is initially devastated at Kara’s confession, insisting that the hero give her some time to process. 

There is a lot of angst and general unhappiness on both their parts, but before too long, Kara’s having her showdown with Red Daughter. Except this time, it’s not just Alex that finds Kara’s body in the forest; Lena is there too. Lena is just as distraught as Alex over Kara’s seeming death, and when Kara wakes up there are tears and hugging and then the next thing she knows this Kara and Lena are kissing? 

“What the heck, Mxy?” Kara asks, shooting a glare at the Fifth Dimensional being. “I thought you were taking this seriously!” 

“I am taking this seriously,” Mxyzptlk defends, looking wounded at the implication. “That’s really what happened.” 

Kara has her doubts, but she supposes it was a very intense moment. Having your best friend almost die in front of you was bound to cause all sorts of emotional turmoil. “You said there are 46 other results for if I told her on the plane?” 

“There are. I know you’ve been limited to a rather narrow set of the multiverse, especially after this whole Earth-Prime business,” Mxyzptlk snapped his fingers again and started drawing on a whiteboard he conjured out of thin air, sketching out as he explains, “but your every decision can create a whole new universe. Even choosing between getting a Big Mac or chicken nuggets can create a new universe. There’s literally an infinite number of universes out there, and whole pile of them have Lenas and Karas. In 47 of those universes, you decided to reveal your secret to Lena on your way back from Kaznia.” 

Okay, that sort of made sense. If there were thousands of different iterations of their history, it isn’t that surprising that there would be one out there where they were more than friends. After all, she had seen an Earth where she was a freaking Nazi. That was much harder to believe than a world where she and Lena were romantically linked. “Could I read some of the other versions?” 

“Be my guest,” Mxyzptlk says, gesturing to the mouse attached to the laptop. “Just click Back and you can choose one of the other 46 results.” 

In the next story Kara tries, Lena apparently always knew Kara’s secret and had just been waiting for Kara to trust her with the truth. They don’t even make it off the plane before Lena is straddling Kara and… wow… Kara keeps reading, jaw dropping. “Okay, I think that’s enough of that story!” Kara slams the laptop shut. “Why would she even have those on the plane in the first place?” Her face feels hot; she’s well aware of the grinning imp sitting just on the other side of the table. 

Once she has calmed herself down, Kara gingerly re-opens the laptop and tries another story. She ends up using her powers to speed through the remaining 45 stories in just a couple minutes. Sometimes Kara and Lena are able to patch things up easily, other times there is a lot of angst and tears involved. Sometimes the stories are a lot of fun, sometimes they are really sweet. In one heart wrenching tale, Lena dies before they have a chance to reconcile. But in all the stories, there are clearly romantic feelings involved (though thankfully given her audience none of the others get quite as explicit as that one story). 

Kara is not sure why all the Kaznia stories are so gosh-darned romantic. Maybe for some reason the Karas that were in love with their Lenas just couldn’t help blurt out their secret during that trip? 

“Can I see what would happen if I told Lena at some time other than during our flight back from Kaznia?” Kara asks, hoping to find some stories where she and Lena keep things more platonic. In Kara’s own reality, they obviously don’t love each other in that way, so reading stories where they do isn’t very helpful.

Mxyzptlk explains how to change the archive filters to see the aftermath based on when she reveals her secret. The list of possibilities is daunting. There are the obvious moments, like when Lena helped her stop Medusa (212 results), when she and Lena stopped the Daxamite invasion (244 results) or when she and Lena fought over Kryptonite (366 results), but it seems like almost every notable event from the first day they met (91 results), to the time they went to spin class together (12 results), to when Kara got drunk (a surprising 486 results) is represented. With so many choices, Kara decides to just start with the most recent and work her way backwards. 

It quickly becomes clear that the plane trip back to Kaznia was not the only moment where the romantically inclined versions of Kara chose to tell Lena about her dual-identity. It does seem like the sooner in their friendship that she reveals the secret, the less likely for there to be a lot of emotional fallout they need to work through, but fallout or not, sooner or later Kara’s confession of her dual-identity leads to confessions of a more romantic nature (and in some cases, there are confessions of love happening even before her secret identity comes out)!

Kara is amazed at the variety of options. As with the Kaznia stories, there is a mix of soft, happy stories, fun (sometimes outright silly) stories, dark and angry stories and stories covering every kink Kara has ever heard of (and more than a few that she hasn’t heard of). These last she mostly skips over (though she does bookmark some of the more… intriguing ones… in case she gets the chance to read them when there isn’t a fifth-dimensional being lying on her couch watching reruns of the Great British Bake-Off as she reads). 

There is one element she keeps seeing time and again in almost every story that does confuse her. The lives of most of these other Karas and Lenas are so similar to their own, but for this one thing that stands out. Perhaps Mxy can help her understand. 

Mxyzptlk is apparently fully invested in what he’s watching on TV, not responding until Kara takes a piece of popcorn from his bowl of it and throws it at his head, “Mxy!” 

“Huh? Yes?” The man sputters in surprise. 

“Who’s this Jess person?” 

The imp laughs, “Who’s Jess? That’s a good one!” He keeps laughing until he looks over and sees Kara’s furrowed brows. “Wait, you seriously don’t know who Jess is?” At her continued blank stare, he adds, “You know, Lena Luthor’s most loyal assistant?” 

Kara further furrows her brows, trying to recall a particularly loyal assistant. “It seems like Lena has a new assistant every other week. The only one that really seemed to stick around for long was Eve. Though I think maybe one of them was named Jess. Or was it Jamie?” 

“Huh,” Mxyzptlk seems just as confused as Kara had been. “This must be the one reality where Jess isn’t an integral part of Lena’s life. No wonder this timeline is so messed up!” 

As she speeds her way through the archive, Kara eventually finds that instead of just adjusting when she confesses her secret, she can actually turn that filter off entirely. When she does that, she sees there are actually thousands more versions of their past where Lena didn’t need to be told her secret. There are stories where she and Lena first fall in love after their daughter shows up from the future, stories where Kara and Lena raise a family together, stories where Kara and Lena have to pretend to date for some reason, stories where Kara and Lena are literal soulmates and even stories where Lena and Kara end up in a polyamorous relationship with one or more of the other Superfriends. Kara decides not to think too hard about this last category. She’s already got enough to deal with at the moment without opening that particular can of worms, thank you very much!

Kara’s stomach has been growling off and on for the past hour and Mxyzptlk eventually falls asleep on the couch, but Kara just can’t stop reading. After working her way through thousands of stories, she finds there’s a whole other category just for something called Alternate Universe stories. At first the name doesn’t quite make sense to Kara since aren’t these all possible alternate universes? But Kara soon realizes that these alternate universes are often quite different from the real world. Sometimes she has powers, sometimes everyone is human. There are stories where she meets Lena in college, stories where they work at a coffee shop together and stories where Lena is the one with powers. Kara gets particularly excited to realize there are literally hundreds of stories where she and Lena go to Hogwarts together. The only ones she likes more are the stories where Lena’s family are loving and supportive (as weird as it is to see Lex and Lillian doting on Lena, it still warms Kara’s heart every single time). 

As Kara works her way through the massive archive documenting the many, many ways she and Lena could get together in these other versions of reality, Kara feels an intense longing. At first, she assumes it is because she just misses her best friend so much, but somewhere along the way, she realizes it is because these stories are documenting what she really wants. 

There’s no grand epiphany or sudden moment of clarity; in fact, Kara has no idea exactly when during her marathon reading session that she realized that she’s in love with Lena. It’s like she’s always known on some level. She just needed to have it spelled out for her. And if these stories are correct, then Lena loves Kara too. Or at least she did. 

Looking over, Kara confirms that Mxyzptlk is still sleeping. She uses a quick burst of speed to dash to her little home office and dashes back now clutching a thumbdrive in her hand. She looks over and is relieved to see her house guest hasn’t stirred. 

Kara feels a little guilty as she plugs the thumbdrive into the laptop and begins copying the entire archive. Mxyzptlk may have been terrible the first time they crossed paths, but she owes him a debt of gratitude for this gift he has given her. She really should ask him if it is okay to copy these. But he might say no, and she really can’t risk that. She’ll just have to live with her guilty conscience. 

“Copying something?” A voice suddenly asks from just over her shoulder. 

Kara just only keeps from jumping out of her chair in surprise at Mxy’s sudden reappearance. “Oh! Um… no?” Kara draws out the word, the blinking light of thumbdrive on the side of the laptop making it clear she’s lying. 

“Great!” Mxyzptlk answers, clapping his hands. “I know you are probably thinking of showing a certain former CEO these files, but the Council has all sorts of silly new rules controlling who gets to see this stuff. But since you clearly aren’t copying anything, then there’s no reason for me to stop you, right?” 

“Oh, uh, right,” Kara replies, unable to keep from smiling at him as she takes the thumbdrive, now carrying the entire archive, back out of the laptop and drops it into her pocket. “Thanks, Mxy.” 

“Of course, Miss Zor-El,” Mxyzptlk winks. “Mxyzptlk loves love.” 

“So, there’s still hope then?” Kara asks, filled with both dread and anticipation at what his answer might be. Surely he wouldn’t be encouraging her now if it was hopeless, right?

“You of all people should know there’s always hope, Miss Zor-El,” Mxyzptlk responds before picking up the laptop. There’s a flash of light and then he starts typing. “There are actually quite a few different versions of what could have happened after Lex spilled the beans about the Super secret. But those versions are a little too close to many of your possible futures so I didn’t include those in the original archive. Don’t want to ruin the surprise after all! But between those different possible versions of your reality and the different possible future paths you and Lena might go down, there are…” Mxyzptlk turned the screen dramatically. 

“37,218 results?!” Kara gasped. 

“Yep! Unfortunately some of these get rather melodramatic, and there are a few super depressing endings in the mix, but there are 36920 versions that have a happy ending so I’d say the odds are in your favor, Miss Zor-El.” 

If someone had told Kara 24 hours ago that she would be hugging Mr. Mxyzptlk she wouldn’t have believed it. Yet here she was, hugging the imp and spinning him around a bit in her excitement. 

His work done, Mxyzptlk bids Kara a farewell and with a flash, he’s gone, presumably returning to the Fifth Dimension. 

The instant he left, Kara is out the door and flying to Lena’s penthouse. She hasn’t slept in over 36 hours and has barely eaten anything in the last 24 hours of those, but she doesn’t want to wait a second longer. She needs to see Lena. 

Kara lands on the balcony, heart jumping as she realizes that even though they were supposedly no longer friends Lena has left her balcony doors wide-open, as if some part of her is still hoping for Kara to appear. 

Lena herself is less welcoming though. “Let me guess, you’re here to tell me once again that I should forgive you?” Lena snarks. “Or, maybe that I shouldn’t work with my brother?” 

“Not this time,” Kara responds. “I know I messed up by keeping you in the dark for so long. And in doing so, we missed out on some amazing possibilities. I can’t change what I did though, but I just had a visit from a friend from the Fifth Dimension and he gave me a… new perspective on our friendship.” 

“What? So now you’ve decided we should never have been friends in the first place?” Lena scoffs, but Kara can see the flash of hurt the woman does her best to hide. 

“Um, it’s kind of the opposite, really,” Kara admits. “He showed me thousands of different ways things could have gone. It was a little surprising at first, but it made me realize some things that I should have realized a long time ago.” 

Kara pulls out the thumbdrive. “This drive contains the archive of all those different ways our stories could have gone. All the ways things could have played out between us from that first day we met up until Lex told you my secret and some other ways things could have gone on top of that. Turns out the multiverse is a lot bigger than we thought; these are all things that have actually happened, either on other versions of Earth-38 or some other Earth.”

“How do I know this isn’t some sort of trick?” 

Kara shrugs, “Honestly, I have no way to prove the archive is real. The magical being, Mr. Mxyzptlk, that gave me the archive is kind of a trickster. But whether these other stories are things that really happened or not, they felt true to me. And I hope they will feel real to you too.” 

Kara holds the thumbdrive out to Lena, “Please just look at them. Mxyzptlk said that there are still lots of possible paths open to us. If you read these and you decide you still don’t want anything to do with me, I’ll accept it. It’ll suck, but I know I can’t force you to forgive me. But if you want to talk, my door is always open to you.” 

Kara can see the warring emotions in Lena’s face but finally, after several agonizing seconds, the woman reaches out and takes the drive. “Thank you,” Kara sighs in relief. 

“Now if you’ll excuse me, Supergirl, I have work to do,” Lena answers, icy tone in full effect, already walking back across the room, the dismissal clear. 

“Of course,” Kara answers. The dismissal does nothing to dim Kara’s spirit. She knows Lena will look at the files; now she just has to hope they prove as eye-opening to her as they had to Kara. 

It is a little over two weeks later that Kara wakes up to a soft knocking on her door one night. She doesn’t even need to use her vision to know who is on the other side; she can hear Lena’s heartbeat so close by the instant she wakes up. 

Kara is still in her pajamas when she opens the door less than a second later, not wanting to give Lena the chance to change her mind and leave. “Lena?” 

“I’m sorry for waking you. I… I just wanted to know if you still wanted to talk,” Lena explains, looking more shy than Kara has ever seen the normally confident woman. 

“Like I said, my door is always open for you,” Kara answered, ushering the other woman into the apartment. 

The two women stare silently at each other for several seconds, seemingly both unsure of what to say now that they are here. Kara is about to ask Lena if she would like something to drink, if only to break the awkward silence, when Lena finally speaks. “I know we have a lot to talk about, but, would… can… can we hug first?” 

Kara holds her arms open, “Always,” she breathes in quiet reverence.

Lena sinks into Kara’s arms. Kara squeezes the other woman as tightly as she dares, tears running down her face and reveling in Lena’s warmth, a warmth she wasn’t sure she would ever get to feel again. 

Lena squeezes back just as tightly, and from the way her breath is hitching, Kara can tell that the other woman is crying too. “I think I’ve needed a Kara Danvers hug for a very long time.” 

Kara knows they will still need to talk and cry and heal. One hug isn’t going to magically erase all the hurt and pain they have inflicted on each other. But she feels a certainty, deep in her bones, that everything is going to be okay. Better than okay; it’s going to be amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course, the second thing Lena does after patching things up with Kara is to track down this reality's version of Jess and offer her a massive raise to come back to work for her. 
> 
> I couldn't help thinking throughout the 100th episode that we already know what would happen if Kara had told Lena her secret at basically any point in time. The fandom has well and truly explored the many possible outcomes at every pivotal plot point of the last four seasons. So then I started thinking, what if Kara could just see that? And thus, this story was born. 
> 
> Obviously Mxyzptlk's version has some much more granular filters than are possible with AO3, but I figure he's magic so he can have super advanced filters for his version of the archive.


	2. A Luthor's Perspective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people wanted to see Lena's own tour of Mxy's archive. The tricky thing (and the reason we didn't see it originally) is that I wanted this to be a fun and kind of silly story. And season 5 Lena is a magnet for angst. But I had a theory (that proved unfounded in canon) about Lena's plans after Crisis so I used that to give us a less angsty window into our favorite Luthor's look at the archive. The story is now canon-divergent from 5x09 and onward as a result.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, Supergirl, I have work to do,” Lena answers, keeping her aloof mask on as she walks across the room, hoping Kara will leave. 

“Of course,” Kara answers. There’s a gust of wind and when Lena turns she can see Supergirl disappearing into the night sky.

Lena’s body sags with relief. Ever since Crisis it has been so hard to keep up her icy exterior around the Kryptonian. Taking the thumbdrive that Kara just gave her, Lena walks over to the nearest drawer, drops the drive in and slams the drawer shut. Lena will look at the drive. She told Kara she would and she has every intention of keeping her promise. But she’s a very busy woman and she can’t drop everything just to look at whatever it is Kara has given her. No matter how much she might want to. 

It takes all of ten minutes for Lena’s resolve to crack. Curiosity and Kara have always been the two things Lena’s has had a hard time resisting, so she’s not really surprised that she is not able to resist the combination of the two. 

Lena takes the drive back out. It’s a nondescript USB thumbdrive. There is no label or anything to indicate what it contains. 

Walking across the room, Lena unlocks her wall safe and pulls out a laptop. Lena still is not sure just how vast Lex’s reach is in this new reality, but with the resources of LuthorCorp behind him, she’s never been too sure he wouldn’t be able to infiltrate her electronics, no matter what encryption she used. 

One of the first things she did after waking up on Earth Prime was assemble her own laptop. It was completely isolated from the internet, it didn’t even have wifi or an Ethernet port, and she had set it to burst into flames if someone tried to tamper with it. She normally uses it to store all the information she has gathered on Lex’s plans. Lena knows that whatever is on this drive is not something she wants her darling brother to see. 

After plugging in the drive, Lena finds it is filled with a bunch of folders and files. There’s a Readme file in the root of the drive so Lena loads that first. 

_Hello, Miss Luthor._

_You don’t know me so allow me to introduce myself, Mister Mxzyptlk at your service. My good friend Miss Danvers copied the contents of this archive onto a USB drive for you. Of course Fifth Dimensional operating systems aren’t exactly compatible with Windows 10. I took the liberty of making a few changes so the files are accessible on your primitive human computer. If you’ll just open the index.html file, everything should be simple enough from there._

_Happy reading!_

_Your New Friend, Mxyzptlk_

Lena isn’t sure what the Fifth Dimension is so she sets that aside for now. She wants to scoff at the simplicity of the instructions this Mister Mxzyptlk has left her. As if she couldn’t figure out that she should open the index file without assistance. Admittedly, figuring out how to access a file system from another dimension probably would have proved more of a challenge, but still. 

Double-clicking the index file, Lena launches a page. At the top of the page she sees, “1 - 20 of 11629 Works in Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor.” On the left there is a list of titles with summaries and tags. On the right, there is a box labelled, “Sort and Filter,” but since she has no idea what she is supposed to be looking at, she thinks there is not much point in trying to sort anything just yet. 

The first title on the list is labelled “Pulling her weight” and has some indecipherable symbols to the left, there’s a red E, a female symbol and a green check. Lena’s not sure what those are supposed to indicate. There is a tag though that says that Lena Luthor finds out that Kara Danvers is Supergirl. And there is also a brief summary promising that “When Lena drags Kara to the gym, it’s not long until secrets are revealed.” From what Kara has told her, Lena supposes this first link must be about a universe when Lena found out Kara’s secret at the gym. “That would be better than finding out from Lex,” Lena admits to herself before clicking the link. 

The file is less of a description of this other world and more a story. It seems to be from Lena’s point-of-view and starts off with some cute banter between Kara and Lena; Kara’s sulking an awful lot about having to go to the gym for someone with literal superpowers (not that story Lena knows that yet). 

Lena can’t help but chuckle as she reads. It’s fascinating to get this glimpse into another world, even if the easy conversation between the other Lena and Kara makes her heart ache for when she used to share such conversations with her own Kara. It’s all rather sweet and innocent up until the point where Kara starts using one of the weight machines.

“Oh, God,” Lena groans as she realizes what is about to happen seconds before it does. This archive file is from Lena’s point-of-view. The Kara from this other Earth is going to start flexing and then Lena’s going to notice and… yep. “Damn it, Lena! Why do you always have to be so damned thirsty around her?” 

Lena really should have seen this coming. Kara’s muscles have always distracted her. That’s why after their first and only spin class together, Lena had to pretend she hated it. She knew if they kept going it would only be a matter of time until she was caught out thirsting over her best friend’s physique. And then Kara would realize that Lena had been crushing on her and then everything would be all awkward. 

It wasn’t that this other version of Lena was thirsting over Kara that had Lena groaning. It was that she knew that her Kara had read this same file. If all these other Karas and Lenas were a lot like this universe’s Lena and Kara, and if a lot of them, like this one, were written from Lena’s perspective then there were bound to be a lot more instances of other Lenas lusting over and/or making heart eyes at other Karas. It’s inevitable that the fact she was head-over-heels in love with Kara was going to come up in at least some of the other universes as well. And Kara had read about them all!

Seeing as Lena didn’t have access to a time machine to allow her to go back and stop Kara from reading all the stories in the first place, she feels like she had no choice but to continue reading the story, if only to know how bad it would get. 

And bad it gets. There are so many moments of Lena getting distracted by whatever the latest exercise or machine Kara tries. The other Lena was not being subtle about checking out the other Kara, like at all. It’s only a matter of time until her lack of subtlety will get her caught by Kara. But, to this universe’s Lena, it’s not Lena that gets caught thirsting over her best friend; instead, Lena is the one to notice that Kara is checking her out! 

From there, things take a drastic turn. Gym Lena, with the sudden boost to her confidence that came from catching Kara staring at her ass, starts flirting with the Kryptonian. It turns out that Gym Kara is apparently not so easily flustered as her own Kara though as she just flirts right back! And before you know it, the two women are in the locker room showers doing things that nobody should ever be doing at a public gym. 

The “Lena finds out that Kara is Supergirl” part that the tag promised only comes up near the end of the tale, when Kara’s ends up clawing a huge chunk of tile off the shower wall. Lena knows how betrayed she would have felt, but Gym Lena takes one look at the sheepish expression on Gym Kara’s face and just starts laughing. 

Once she finishes reading the story, Lena puts the USB stick right back in the junk drawer. It occurs to Lena that the junk drawer is not exactly the most secure location though so she pops the drawer back open and puts the USB stick in her hidden safe instead.

Sooner or later, Lena knows she will have to deal with the fact that no matter how oblivious Kara can be sometimes, there’s no way she doesn’t know about Lena’s feelings for her now. But right now, the CEO intends to get very, very drunk. 

When she wakes up the next morning with a massive hangover, Lena is tempted to continue to ignore this new problem. But it’s not going to just go away as much as she wishes it would. She gave herself one night to process the issue (okay, fine, one night to ignore it), but she’s learned the hard way that ignoring her problems does nothing to make them go away. 

This time when Lena loads the archive, she decides she is going to be much more analytical about it. Instead of just clicking on the next item in the list, she tries to figure out the filters. She quickly realizes that the graphical icons on the left all have alt text that identify what each symbol means. If she had seen that the E meant explicit before, she might have been somewhat better prepared to read about another Lena hooking up with Kara in a locker room shower. Though to be fair, the title of that file could have been, “Kara and Lena have sex at the gym” and Lena still wouldn’t have expected that was what she would actually find when she read it. But she would have been at least a little prepared. 

Lena goes through the box on the right to see what filtering options are available. She opens one labelled “relationships.” It seems like whatever this archive is, it is entirely composed of universes where she and Kara are involved, but there are other featured relationships available. Some of them are not exactly a surprise, for example a lot of the featured worlds promise relationships between Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer or Alex Danvers and Kelly Olsen. 

It is a bit of a surprise to see just how many realities there are where Alex is in a relationship with Samantha Arias. Lena had always thought she had gotten a vibe between Alex and Sam when Sam had still been in National City. But Alex was still recovering from her failed relationship with Detective Sawyer, and then the whole Reign thing happened and then by the time that was resolved, Sam had left National City. Whatever vibe may or may not have been there, the timing had never been right. At least not on this Earth. But it seems like in a lot of other universes they managed to make it work somehow. 

Lena knows how happy Alex and Kelly are and she has no intention of messing that up. She does make a mental note to revisit the topic with Sam should Alex end up single again at some point in the future, but that’s as far as she takes it.

While looking at relationships featuring Sam, Lena realizes that apparently Alex is not the only potential partner for Sam in these other universes. Apparently there were a fair number of worlds where Sam ended up in a relationship with both Lena and Kara. That brings to mind all sorts of intriguing possibilities, but Lena isn’t even sure that Kara likes her. She’s not going to complicate things even further for herself by wondering too much about what a life with herself, Kara and Sam could be like. 

Using the internet to help with some of the definitions, Lena familiarizes herself with the many filters, but even knowing what each filter means, she’s not really sure where to start reading. Lena is a fast reader, but she doesn’t have super-speed. Supergirl may be able to read thousands of files in a single day, but it would take Lena a lot longer to even make a small dent in the vast archive. If Hope hadn’t been lost when the universe had been rebooted, the AI could have digested the content and helped Lena decide what to look at first, but here on Earth-Prime she is left to her own devices. 

The first thing Lena does is select the rating of General Audiences. She knows she’ll delve back into the Explicit rating again at some point, if only to get a better idea of just what Kara had read, but she’s not ready to re-open that particular Pandora’s box at the moment. General Audiences seems like the safest bet. 

From there, she decides to select one of the oldest files in the archive. The file is only a couple thousand words, there is a tag promising fluff and the summary talks about Kara interviewing Lena for the first time. Something that will hopefully be a little less awkward to read about than the encounter at the gym.

As promised, the file covers their first interview. And this time it is from the other Kara’s point-of-view so Lena doesn’t have to worry about Kara getting a peek into another Lena’s thoughts this time. It is kind of adorable to see how nervous Kara had been before their interview. Everything plays out pretty much as Lena remembers it until the archive Lena offers to have Kara’s parking validated. 

_“Oh, no, that’s fine,” Kara answered, waving off the CEO’s offer. “I flew here. On… on a bus!” As soon as she said the words, she realized her mistake. “Er, not a bus. Buses don’t fly. Shoot. Um... It was… um… a bike! Yeah, I flew here on my bike.”_

_At Lena’s confused expression, Kara continued, “Wait, you don’t have flying bikes on Earth. Er, I mean.. Not that I’ve ever been to a planet that has flying bikes. That’s just silly, right?”_

_The hero sighed. Alex was going to kill her. “Um, so the thing is… I’m kind of Supergirl?”_

Lena jaw drops. This Kara and Lena barely knew each other. They had only just agreed to call each other by their first names and yet Kara had just blurted out her biggest secret because she couldn’t come up with a believable excuse? 

The archive file does not go on for much longer. The archive Lena laughs, thinking Kara is just joking. The archive Kara considers taking the out being offered, but instead of preserving her secret she takes off her glasses and lets her hair down then opens her shirt to reveal her supersuit. The other Lena is understandably shocked, but Kara ends up giving a long rambling speech about how she’s supposed to keep her identity a secret, but that she’s glad that Lena knows because now that she knows the truth, Kara has no excuse not to ask her on a date.

Lena isn’t sure if she should laugh or cry. All the anguish and heartbreak that Kara’s damned secret has caused on this Earth and on some other Earth, it was all so easily avoided. If only her Kara had been as willing to open up to her, how much easier would their lives have been. Would she and Kara have ended up dating too? 

Forcing herself not to dwell on what she just read, Lena spends a few minutes creating a simple algorithm to randomly select a file based on the current filter settings. There’s just no way she is going to be able to get through the entire archive, at least not any time soon; she’s hoping to use the algorithm to at least get a representative sample. 

Lena spends the next few days reading through so many different ways things could have gone between herself and Kara. What amazes her the most is just how much easier things are in a lot of these other worlds. There are worlds where Lena figures out the truth right away, or she’s known it before they even met, ones where Lena sees through the disguise, worlds where Kara accidentally reveals her secret, ones where Kara chooses to tell Lena the truth, and ones where Lena finds out the truth after shooting Lex. 

There is a wide spectrum of reactions from the other Lenas when they find out Kara’s secret. Some of them are surprised, some of them always suspected, and some of the Lenas are hurt and angry. But even amongst the hurt and angry Lenas, Lena realizes her experience is something of an outlier. There are seemingly very few instances where Kara’s secret identity manages to create as large of a rift between them as it has in their own reality. 

After doing some refining of the filters, she looks specifically at the archive files that mirror their own reality up to and including Lex telling Lena the truth as he’s dying. If she had just followed the example of some of these other Lenas and given Kara a chance to tell her the truth, or even if she had just confronted her best friend sooner instead of holding in all her rage and letting it fester and build for months, then she could have spared herself so much pain. Could have spared them both so much pain. 

It hurts to realize there are so very many ways she and Kara could have been happy together. To realize that their own reality is an outlier. Thousands of other Lenas and Karas managed to work through their issues and fall in love, but not they haven’t. More than anything, Lena wants what those other Lenas and Karas have. But does Kara want that too? 

Obviously Kara hasn’t given up on Lena completely. She wouldn’t have come to her, wouldn’t have given her a database outlining thousands of parallel universes where they had fallen in love, if she didn’t want to mend their relationship. But knowing Kara, she may just be trying to say that they can repair their friendship. Heck, maybe Kara thinks all those other Lenas and Karas are just really good pals and that’s all she’s looking for with Lena.

There is only one person Lena can ask. Well, one person other than Kara. Lena’s not brave enough to ask Kara directly. Not yet. Losing L-Corp sucked, but one small benefit was that it is now much easier to just step out in the middle of a workday. So Lena pulls out a burner phone and sends a coded text with a time and a set of coordinates. Seconds later she gets back a confirmation message. An hour later she is meeting with Alex Danvers in a small coffee shop. 

Crisis had given Lena a new outlook on life. Being wiped out of existence with the rest of the multiverse had a funny way of putting things into perspective. All that hurt and anger she had felt towards Kara, mingled with a healthy dose of self-loathing, it had been so stupid. At the end of the multiverse, Lena had wanted nothing more than her best friend at her side. They still had things they would have to talk about, of course. Things they needed to work through. But her first thoughts on waking up on Earth Prime had been of Kara and how they would have another chance. 

Unfortunately, her newfound optimism ran smack dab into her no longer dead brother, Lex. Her brother was not only very much alive, but internationally revered and in possession of nearly endless resources. Lena’s first priority was to put a stop to whatever he might be plotting. 

Lena’s first instinct had been to go to Kara for help. She and Kara had always made a formidable team, whether Kara was in her supersuit or not. It took all of thirty seconds of talking to the other woman to know she couldn’t do that. Things with Kara were still too messy. Rebuilding their connection would take time, time Lex would use to plot against them. She told herself that it was better to wait until Lex had been dealt with. That it would be better for Lex to think she still hated the Kryptonian. Though deep-down, she had been afraid it was too late; that Lena had broken their friendship forever. 

Lena’s next thought had been to partner with Lillian. While Lillian was never going to be winning any Mother of the Year awards, they had managed to at least somewhat repair their relationship over the past couple years. Lillian had seen first-hand the costs of Lex’s obsessions. She had even tried to stop him when he had set himself up in the Whitehouse. 

Lena hadn’t realized just how far she and Lillian’s relationship had come until all that progress was erased. It broke her heart all over again when she realized that this reality’s version of her step-mom was still the cold, ruthless and heartless version she remembered. That she was still Lex’s greatest supporter and saw Lena as nothing more than the inferior child. Lena could never trust this version of Lillian. 

Since Lena was too scared to try working with Kara yet and this new Earth’s Lillian would never be her ally, Lena’s best option for an ally to stop her brother was Alex Danvers. Alex might not have superpowers, but she was smart, capable, highly trained and had access to DEO resources. Things with Alex were emotionally fraught too, but it wouldn’t break Lena if Alex refused to trust her. It made a twisted sort of sense to Lena; if she couldn’t work with Kara, she would work with the one person she knew that Kara trusted unequivocally. Lena could tell herself she was working with Kara by proxy. 

On the same day that Lena had pretended to accept Lex’s partnership she had approached Alex. Lena told the woman everything she knew and offered to help in whatever way she could to stop Lex once and for all. The only condition she had placed on their partnership was that Alex couldn’t tell anyone; especially not Kara. Alex hadn’t liked that last bit, but she had reluctantly accepted it after Lena had pleaded that it was necessary for now. 

Things had been strained at first. Alex clearly was still angry at Lena for hurting Kara, and Lena was still reluctant to open up to her former friend, but they eventually had managed to rebuild a tentative friendship. A secret partnership like theirs required trust if it was going to work, and trust required communication. Over the past couple months they had made a lot of progress. 

Until Lena and Kara were able to patch things up, things would always be a little weird. Alex had apologized for her part in making Lena feel like they didn’t trust her. And Lena had apologized for how she had reacted. But Alex hadn’t been the one that Lena had hurt. She was still hurting Kara even if now it was only because she wasn’t talking to her. Kara was the one that Lena needed to make things right with. While the issues with Kara were unresolved, there would always be this awkward spot in their friendship. 

Still, it was Alex that Lena needed to talk to. If she was going to finally risk reaching out to Kara, if Lena was going to actually tell Kara how she felt about her, she wanted reassurances that her feelings would be returned. She couldn’t handle Kara breaking her heart again. Besides opening up to Alex about her feelings could be a good practice for opening up to Kara. 

Alex was already waiting for Lena when she arrived at their designated meeting spot; this time a rundown little diner nestled between a couple of factories in the industrial district. 

As soon as Lena sat down, Alex asked, “What is Lex up to now?” An understandable question considering Lena had requested an urgent meeting, something she had only ever done before in situations where immediate action was needed to thwart her brother’s latest plot. 

“Actually, this is about Kara.” Alex tensed at the mention of her sister. “Don’t worry, she’s fine. She… she came to see me the other day. She said she had a visit from a being from the Fifth Dimension.” 

“She told you about Mxyzptlk?” Alex asks. 

“So you know then?”

Alex shrugs her shoulders. “Kind of? I was there when he showed up at her door. Afterwards,she spent the weekend barricaded in her apartment. She’s been different since. She has refused to tell me what happened, only that it gave her a valuable perspective. I think it was probably something good. She seems more hopeful. Still worried about something, but more hopeful than I’ve seen her since...” 

“Since I betrayed her,” Lena finishes. 

“I keep telling you, if you just talk to her, she’ll understand.” Alex’s tone is soft considering the circumstances. This was a conversation they had had many times over the past couple months. Once Alex had heard Lena’s side of things, she insisted that Kara would understand if Lena would only give her a chance. Only now Lena thinks she might finally be ready to talk to Kara. 

“I do want to talk to her—” 

“But you are scared she’ll never forgive you,” Alex interrupts. “We’ve been over this. Kara is like physically incapable of staying mad when it comes to you.” 

“Actually, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Kara came to me after that, um, what did you call him? Mix-something?”

“Mxyzptlk,” Alex repeated, pronouncing it more slowly this time.

“Mxyzptlk,” Lena said back with a nod. “Thanks. I’ve only seen the name in writing.” 

“Wait, how did you find out about Mxzyptlk? Did Kara tell you?” 

“Kind of,” Lena admits. “When she came to see me, she told me she had a visit from a friend from another dimension. He gave her access to information on thousands of other worlds. Information on what happened with the versions of Kara and myself on those other worlds.”

“Let me guess, in all those other worlds you and Kara are dating or married or whatever.” 

“I thought you said Kara didn’t tell you anything!” 

Alex chuckles, shaking her head. “Oh, she didn’t. But you two have been drawn to each other like magnets ever since you first met. Things can vary a lot from one universe to the next. I mean, if there’s a world where Kara’s a Nazi supervillain, there has to be other universes where almost anything is possible. Mxyzptlk was supposed to be doing Kara a favor. So of course he would show her worlds where you two idiots finally got your shit together.” 

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Lena tries to protest. It’s an automatic response to being called out about her feelings, but it’s admittedly a silly reaction since the whole reason she wanted to talk to Alex was to feel out if Kara might possibly have feelings for Lena too. 

“Come on, Lena. You two have been making heart eyes at each other for years! And since you started fighting you’ve both been miserable. Do you know how many times I’ve found Kara just sitting in the dark and staring at a photo of the two of you? I’ve never seen two people more obviously in love than you two.” 

“She’s really in love with me?” Lena asks. “Like present tense? Not that she was, but that she still is?” 

“I mean, she has never said it in so many words, but she definitely is. Everyone knows it.” 

“Who’s everyone?” 

“Let’s see,” Alex answered, holding her hands and counting on her fingers, “There’s me, Kelly, Eliza, J’onn, Nia, Brainy, James, Winn, Sam, Ruby, Maggie, Vasquez, and at least two of the delivery drivers for Happy Dumplings. Pretty much anyone who has been in the same room with the two of you for more than five minutes, really. The only ones who can’t seem to see it are the two of you.”

“Maggie knew?” Lena catches on. Maggie left National City not long after she and Alex broke up; Lena hasn’t seen her in years and as far as she knows, neither has Kara. 

“She was the one that pointed it out to me,” Alex admits. “I hadn’t really perfected the whole gaydar thing. I thought you were just really good pals.” 

“And you think she still loves me?” Lena needs to know. “Even after everything…” 

“Do you remember what Kara was like after Mon-El had to leave Earth the first time?” 

Lena isn’t sure why Alex has changed the topic, but she humors her friend. “Yeah, totally withdrew. I barely saw her for months. She almost quit her job at CatCo. If I hadn’t needed her help, I think she might have.” 

“That’s nothing compared to how she’s been since what happened with two of you in the Fortress. Before she had her run in with Mxyzptlk, she was just so broken. When she wasn’t not busy being Supergirl, she was moping around her apartment. I wasn’t kidding about the picture thing. I can’t tell you the number of times I would come over to find her staring at some picture of the two of you. Sometimes, she’d be looking at ones on her phone, but usually she’d have one of her framed photos in her hands, or one of the ones from the fridge,” Alex pauses to take a swig of her coffee. “Honestly the sheer number of pictures the two of you have with your arms around each other is another dead giveaway that the two of you have always been more than friends. Kara’s been my sister and my best friend for almost twenty years and we don’t have as many pictures as the two of you do.”

Lena had removed all her photos of Kara from her phone; storing them on her home computer so she isn’t tempted to stare at them at work. She has dozens of physical photos as well; those she keeps in the same lead-lined safe with her laptop. Each night before bed, she opens the safe and stares at the photos, thinking of happier times. 

“So you’re saying there’s still a chance for us?” 

“I know Kara hurt you. That she broke your heart. But you hurt my sister just as much as she hurt you. You manipulated her trust. You trapped her in Kryptonite. Broke her heart. I know we are friends, but do you really think I would have worked with you if I didn’t know that she still loves you? That you still love her?” 

Alex sighs. “I know I’m supposed to be the overprotective big sister. I am not in the habit of giving another chance to people who hurt my sister, friend or not. I am making an exception. I’m giving you another chance not just because I know how much Kara loves you, but because I think you two are good for each other. Kara deserves to be happy and I think you do too. Just don’t mess it up, okay?”

Years of experience have taught Lena to doubt anyone could really care about her. She’s used to people abandoning her. Lena’s first instinct is to think Alex must be wrong. There’s no way that Kara could still love Lena after what she’s done. But Alex knows Kara. And Alex is a good person. She wouldn’t lie to Lena about something like this. So that means Alex must honestly believe that Kara still has feelings for her. And if anyone would know what the hero is feeling, it would be her sister. It seems too good to be true, but somehow Kara must actually still want Lena in her life. 

If it wasn’t for the fact they are in a public cafe, and seated on opposite sides of the table, Lena wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from hugging Alex. As it is, she settles for reaching out and squeezing the other woman’s hand. “Thank you, Alex. You are a true friend.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex answers, clearly uncomfortable with the praise. “Don’t break her heart again though, or… Well, I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to threaten you with bodily harm. Say that if you hurt her again they’ll never find your body or something. But let’s be honest, no matter what happened between the two of you, Kara would probably throw _me_ into the sun if I ever did anything to you. So just be sure to give me the credit at your wedding and we’ll call it even.” 

After having Alex not only tell her that Kara still had feelings for her, but outright encouraging Lena to tell Kara how she felt, logically Lena knows her next step should be to actually talk to Kara. As soon as she gets in her car she even tells her driver to take her to CatCo, but as the car makes the trip across the city, she starts wondering if the office is really the best place to have this conversation. Besides, what if Kara isn’t even there? Or she is there but she’s in a meeting? Lena’s not sure if she’s chickening out or just being prudent (she’s definitely chickening out), but in either case, she huffs a defeated sigh and instructs her driver to take her back to LuthorCorp. 

What is the best way to tell your former best friend that you are in love with her anyway? Before Mxyzptlk, Kara probably thought Lena hated her. Lena had certainly given her plenty of reasons to think that. Heck, Lena had almost managed to convince herself that she hated Kara before the whole dying with the rest of the multiverse business. But now Kara knows there are literally thousands of other worlds much like their own, even worlds where they had a big angst-filled blow-up over Kara’s secret, where the two of them are happily together. Kara has to know that it is at least a possibility, doesn’t she? 

Visiting Kara at work isn’t the best way to handle the situation, but what is? Lena still has the watch Kara gave her; she knows that with the single push of a button that Lena could summon the hero. The watch is supposed to be for emergencies though, and she doesn’t want to make Kara think her life is in danger, especially since there’s always a chance Supergirl could have a real emergency to deal with at the same time Lena pushes the button. 

Texting would be better; she could text Kara and ask her to meet her at her LuthorCorp office, or better yet, at her penthouse. But every time they have talked since Lena trapped Kara at the Fortress, Kara’s been the one to reach out, to come to Lena. Whether it had been Lena’s office or Lena’s apartment, it had always been somewhere where Lena had the home field advantage. If they were going to become a team again, Lena needed to be willing to show she could reach out too. That she was still willing to be vulnerable around Kara. So Lena needed to talk to Kara somewhere where Kara could be the one to feel safe. 

Going to Kara’s office wouldn’t work, and going to the DEO would hardly be an improvement (not to mention Lex might interrupt them). And while Kara loved Noonan’s, it wasn’t really the sort of place where you could talk about secrets and feelings. So that leaves Kara’s apartment as the only viable meeting place. 

Deciding that she should also text first instead of just showing up unannounced, Lena brings up Kara’s contact and types out and erases dozens of messages over the next couple days. She always ends up erasing them, never quite happy with how they sound. She debates calling instead, her finger hovering over the call button again and again, but she can never quite bring herself to do it. Eventually Lena realizes if she can’t text and she can’t call, she’s going to just have to show up at Kara’s door and hope the reporter is home. 

Of course, deciding to go to Kara’s apartment and actually making the trip are two very different things. It takes Lena three more days, and a half-dozen aborted trips (in some cases, turning around when she was halfway across town, in others, barely making it out her front door), before she actually makes it to Kara’s building. She almost turns around again right after pushing the button to call the elevator in Kara’s building, but with Kara’s super-hearing, it’s possible she might already know Lena’s in the building. If she backs out this time, Kara might think she’s just running away again. 

Even with the knowledge that Kara might be able to hear her, Lena still ends up pacing back and forth in the hallway in front of Kara’s door for a long time. She raises her hand to knock on more than one occasion before finally getting the nerve to rap her knuckles ever so lightly against the door. With anyone else, there’s no way they would hear it, but with her enhanced hearing, if Kara is home, she will hear the light tapping. 

Less than a second later, the door practically flies open to reveal a surprised looking Kara Danvers. She’s so happy that Kara is there and that she actually opened the door that it takes a moment to realize that Kara is wearing pyjamas, an adorable Pickachu set that Lena bought her for Christmas the previous year. 

After seeing those pyjamas Lena realizes just how late it is. Somehow between her aborted attempts to make the journey, and the time spent pacing in the hallway, it’s actually well after midnight. 

Showing up late isn’t part of the plan. Lena was supposed to show up at a reasonable time instead of dragging Kara out of bed in the middle of the night. Lena’s already messing this up and she hasn’t even said anything yet. 

Kara’s still staring back at her, probably wondering what brings Lena to her door at this hour. Lena’s not sure how long she’s been standing there just looking at Kara with what she knows must be a dumbstruck look on her face, but there’s nothing to do but press on. “I know we have a lot to talk about, but, would… can… can we hug first?” 

She had spent the last few days working on a speech. Planning for different ways for how the conversation could go. Several of the possible imagined scenarios ended with her asking for a hug, but that wasn’t supposed to happen until after they had talked out their issues. But once she says it she realizes that’s what she really needs. The world always feels better when Kara is hugging her. 

There’s no hesitation from the hero; Kara immediately holds out her arms for Lena, sighing out “Always,” as she does. 

Lena practically throws herself into those waiting arms. It feels so good to have Kara holding her again. Kara’s squeezing her almost too tightly, but Lena revels in the sensation, squeezing back as tightly as her human strength allows. 

Lena realizes at some point she’s started crying, the intensity of the joy and relief she is feeling almost too much to bear. With anyone else, Lena would be mortified to let her emotions overwhelm her like this, but this is Kara. And judging by the hero’s own sobs, she needs this hug just as much as Lena does. 

It’s hard to know just how much time they spend just hugging each other tightly, still in the open doorway of Kara’s apartment, but eventually Kara asks softly, “Do you want to come in?” Kara’s head is still resting on Lena’s shoulder so she can’t actually see the other woman’s face, but Lena can hear the hope in the other woman’s face, tinged with just a hint of hesitation, like she’s worried that Lena is going to say no. 

“I’d like nothing better,” Lena answers, reluctantly breaking the hug, but holding her hand out to the other woman. 

Kara takes her hand and walks backward, ushering Lena into her apartment. Lena knows she probably should be scared and anxious. They have so many issues they still need to talk about. Kara’s secret, Lena’s betrayal, everything that happened during and after Crisis, Lena’s feelings for Kara and whether those feelings could ever be returned. She was terrified that Kara was going to reject her before she knocked on her door. But now that she’s seen Kara, and they’ve held each other, Lena knows no matter what happens, it’s all going to be okay. 

* * *

“So, what do you think?” Mxyzptlk asks, bouncing on his toes, clearly anxious for their thoughts. “Is it a suitable wedding gift?”

“I love it,” Kara answers, looking up from the pad in her hands. 

Lena, her head on Kara’s shoulder, chimes in, “Me too. Though did you really have to include all the stuff with me freaking out?” 

Mxyzptlk laughs. “Oh, please. We both know that’s the condensed version! You were so dramatic back then. Everything was just angst, angst, angst!” 

“Hey, no teasing my wife!” Kara defends, pointing a finger at Mxy, though the grin on her face undercuts the threat. “It’s not her fault she’s a disaster lesbian.” 

There’s no denying the truth of that statement so Lena just points out, “At least I already knew I had feelings for you, darling. I didn’t need a visit from a Fifth Dimensional being to spell it out for me.” 

“We would have gotten here eventually.” Kara says before placing a gentle kiss on Lena’s forehead. “It might have taken us a little longer, but there’s no universe where we don’t figure it out sooner or later.” 

“Actually,” Mxyzptlk answers, “There are four hund—”

“I said there are _no universes_ where we don’t figure it out,” Kara repeats, her voice making stern. 

“Oh, right. Sure,” Mxyzptlk answers. “Not a one. My mistake.” 

“Not a one,” Lena agrees, cuddling closer to Kara. Lena knows Kara’s wrong. There are universes where one or both of them were never born (she knows for a fact that neither of them existed on Earth-1), or where they never meet, probably even ones where they meet, but somehow don’t fall in love. But she prefers Kara’s view. It’s hard to imagine a possible world where she doesn’t fall in love with her Kryptonian.

“Speaking of figuring it out, I’m off to Earth-4129. It’s a lot like this place, but on that Earth in addition to being a billionaire CEO, Earth-4129’s Lena is also Batwoman. She and Kara have long since figured out each other’s secret identity but Kara thinks Lena has no idea she’s Supergirl. And Lena thinks Kara has no idea she’s Batwoman. They are both hopelessly in love with each other, but too scared how the other will react when they ‘find out’ about their secret identity. Honestly, they might even be bigger disasters than the two of you.” 

Kara laughs. “You’re not still trying to find a Supergirl to marry you, are you?” 

“And get between the two of you?” Mxy gasps. “No, thank you! If you must know, Batwoman Lena helped me out of a jam, so I figure I owe her a favor. It’s amazing how many Earths where it takes forever for the two of you to get past the oblivious pining stage.” 

“I’d wish you good luck, but it’s not like you’ll need it,” Lena jokes. 

Kara nods. “We’re pretty much destiny.” 

After Mxyzptlk disappears in a flash of light, Lena asks, “Do you ever wish we were one of those other 11,629 worlds? Maybe one with less angst and pining? We could have gotten here a lot sooner.” She interlocks her fingers with Kara’s as she speaks. 

“Not for a second.” Kara looks into Lena’s eyes as she speaks. “I’m happy for all those other Karas and Lenas, but you’re the Lena I want to be with. I mean, would you look sexy in a batsuit? Of course. Have I been thinking about it since Mxy told us? Maybe...” 

Kara trails off, a goofy smile on her face. After several seconds, Lena pokes a finger into her side. “Hey!” 

“Sorry, sorry. Just got lost in the mental image for a second,” Kara teases. “But seriously, I wouldn’t want to trade places with any of those other Karas. It’s neat to think there are other Earths out there where you’re the one with superpowers, or we’re working at a coffee shop together, or we’re literal soulmates. But those others Karas aren’t me, and those other Lenas aren’t you. You’re the Lena I fell in love with. You’re the one I married.” 

“Good answer,” Lena responds. “It kind of feels like all we went through was a necessary part of our journey, right?” 

“Even when we did stupid stuff, it was leading us to this place. And I can’t think of a better place to be.” 

“Well, I can think of one better place we could be,” Lena responds, waggling her eyebrows. “I may not have a batsuit, but I’m sure we could put together something interesting.” 

“I like the way you think,” Kara purrs, before scooping up her laughing wife and flying them towards the bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Earlier this year I had this theory that Lena would never actually work with him and that she was only pretending to work with him while feeding information to Alex. It explained why Lena was seemingly willing to cooperate with Lex and why Alex never questioned Brainy's actions when he first started working with Lex, even though he was really bad at hiding his deception. Obviously that theory wasn't accurate, but I thought it would be nice way to give us a look at Lena's world without dragging us into an angst storm. 
> 
> This chapter is still more serious than the first one, but I hope you still enjoyed it!


End file.
